The Russian mercenary leader who led a mutiny that nearly reached Moscow said in a message released on Monday his forces had not intended to overthrow Russia's government, and had demonstrated the weaknesses in Russian security.
In the first public remarks released since he was last seen on Saturday night smiling in the back of an SUV as he withdrew from a city occupied by his men, Yevgeny Prigozhin said his fighters called off their campaign to avert bloodshed.
His statement came on the day when Russian President Vladimir Putin issued via the Kremlin website his first statement since an armed mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group, congratulating participants of an industrial forum. It was not immediately clear when or where Putin's statement was recorded.
Senior Russian officials, at the same time, rallied around Putin, while state media said authorities were still investigating the mercenary leader whose weekend mutiny appeared to be major threat to the Russian leader’s 23-year-old rule.
Prigozhin, in an 11-minute audio message released on the Telegram messaging app on Monday evening, said: "We went as a demonstration of protest, not to overthrow the government of the country.”
“Our march showed many things we discussed earlier: The serious problems with security in the country,” he said.
He made no reference to his own present location, two days after he said he was leaving for Belarus under an agreement brokered by that country's president to end his mutiny. Prigozhin shocked the world by leading the armed mutiny, only to abruptly call it off as his fighters approached the capital after racing nearly 1,000 km.
Russia’s three main news agencies reported on Monday that a criminal case against Prigozhin had not been closed, despite an offer of immunity having been publicised as part of the deal that persuaded him to stand down.
The headquarters of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, according to a report in The Moscow Times, said Monday it was working in “normal mode.”
On the first working day after fighters of the powerful Wagner Group seized a military headquarters and marched on Moscow, officials still gave no details about the deal that abruptly ended the mutiny.
Mikhail Mishustin, who leads Putin’s cabinet as his appointed prime minister, acknowledged Russia had faced “a challenge to its stability”, and called for public loyalty. “We need to act together, as one team, and maintain the unity of all forces, rallying around the president,” he told a televised government meeting.
There was no word about the revolt from Putin himself, who had said on Saturday the rebellion put Russia's very existence under threat and vowed to punish those behind it. The Kremlin released a video from him congratulating participants of an industrial forum, containing no indication of when it had been filmed.
In another move apparently intended to convey normality, authorities released video showing Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. The mutineers had demanded he be sacked, leading to speculation that his removal might have been part of the arrangement that ended the revolt.
Russia's national Anti-Terrorism Committee said the situation in the country was stable. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who had told residents to stay indoors on Saturday as the mutinous fighters raced to within a few hundred kilometres of the capital, said he was cancelling a counter-terror security regime.
Saturday's extraordinary events left governments, both friendly and hostile to Russia, groping for answers to what happened behind the scenes and what could come next.
‘Cracks’
Russia’s ally China, where a senior Russian diplomat visited on Sunday, said it supported Moscow in maintaining national stability. Ukraine and some of its Western allies said the turmoil revealed cracks in Russia.
“The political system is showing fragilities, and the military power is cracking,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Luxembourg as he arrived for a meeting with ministers from across the 27-member bloc.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the invasion of Ukraine, which Putin calls a “special military operation” to counter threats, was destroying Russia, and the West would continue to back Kyiv.
Prigozhin, whose men had been welcomed on the streets of Rostov, had demanded that Defence Minister Shoigu and the army's top general be handed over to him. A defence ministry video on Monday showed Shoigu flying in a plane with a colleague and hearing reports at a command post with no indication of when or where it had been filmed.
Ruble at lowest in 15 months
The ruble weakened temporarily by almost 3 per cent against the US dollar on Monday, the most this year, after a mutiny by mercenary commander Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose brief uprising represents the biggest threat to President Vladimir Putin’s political control in his almost quarter century in power. The ruble then erased losses to trade 0.1% higher at 84.59 per dollar.
(BLOOMBERG)
Embassy's eviction: No relief in Aus
Australia’s highest court on Monday dismissed Russia’s application for an injunction that would have prevented Moscow's embassy being evicted from a site in Canberra. In dismissing the application, High Court Justice Jayne Jagot described Russia's challenge on constitutional grounds to a law terminating the lease as “weak” and “difficult to understand.”
(AP)
Exiled opposition leader warns of threat to Belarus
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s announced relocation to Belarus has created a new threat to the country’s independence as well as the safety of its NATO neighbors, exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said.
(BLOOMBERG)
 "It was a protest, not an attempt to overthrow regime: Wagner leader")
